WB GAMES VICE PRESIDENT TO PRESENT DEVELOP CONFERENCE BUSINESS KEYNOTE

Laura Fryer, Vice President and general manager for WB Games Seattle and‘one of the most influential women in gaming’, will present the Business Track Keynote at this year’s Develop in Brighton Conference, taking place from 19– 21 July 2011.

In her presentation‘Managing the Mystery’, Fryer will explore game development as a creative process, and discuss how to support and lead that process within the constraints of business, using real world examples from projects past and present.

Laura currently oversees game development for the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s internal studios in the Seattle area, including Snowblind Studios, which is currently working on‘The Lord of the Rings: War in the North’.

“Like the best games, game development itself can never be mastered, but may be improved upon. I think that Develop in Brighton is a wonderful opportunity for us to share and learn from each other and I look forward to participating,” said Laura Fryer, Vice President and general manager, WB Games Seattle.

Laura was named one of The Hollywood Reporter's‘Top 12 Most Influential Women in Gaming’, one of Next Generation's‘Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women’, and Gamasutra’s‘Top 20 Women in Games’.

Other Develop sessions confirmed so far include:

No Console Required?– Bulldozing the Barriers to Entry

Andrew Eades, Relentless Software

From Phones to High End PCs: How to Scale Your Technology

Aras Pranckevicius, Unity

Innovation - A State of Mind

Nick Baynes, Black Rock Studio

Why great games don't always sell

Gareth Wilson, Sumo Digital

Being Agile in a Waterfall world

Brynley Gibson, Zoe Mode

You Want What When? (or How Tools Saved My Life)

Jim Fowler, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

The Keys To Unlock Believable Performance

Mark Estdale, Casting&Voice Director, OMUK

Sound Psychology: Using Subliminal Sound To Prime The Subconscious Mind

Alex Joseph, Senior Sound Designer and Producer

The Develop Conference in Brighton celebrates its sixth birthday this year and promises a stellar line up of speakers, sessions and socialising. Around 1,300 delegates from across the globe are expected to attend.

Registration is open at www.developconference.com and, for the next two months only, delegates can nip online to purchase one, two and three day passes at very special early bird rates.

Notes to editors:

Laura Fryer’s Bio: As Vice President and General Manager for WB Games Seattle, Laura Fryer oversees game development for the Warner Bros internal studios in the Seattle area, including Snowblind Studios, which is currently working on "Lord of the Rings: War in the North".

Prior to WB, Laura was an Executive Producer for Microsoft Games Studios, where she was responsible for shipping "Gears of War" and" Gears of War 2". An industry veteran, Laura was one of the first members of Microsoft Game Studios in 1995. As a producer, she shipped several games including the classic“Crimson Skies” and Microsoft's first massively multiplayer game“Fighter Ace”. She conceived and produced Microsoft's first release of Zone.com. Laura was also Director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, and a founding member of the Xbox project.

About the Develop Conference:

The sixth Develop Conference will take place at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton, UK, from 19 - 21 July 2011. It attracts around 1300 game developers from over 20 different territories and has become firmly established as the leading conference in Europe for games developers. Delegates can apply for conference passes at: www.developconference.com.

Evolve focuses on how to develop games for new and emerging platforms, new technologies and new markets like social and casual gaming. It opens on Tuesday 19 July then continues with individual sessions within the main conference programme on Wednesday 20 July, which are cross-discipline and have a more general appeal.

Indie Dev Day the new day-long conference and networking event running alongside Develop is designed for established independent studios, new start-ups, wannabe indies, freelance developers and students. The sessions will complement the brand new Indie Dev Showcase: a dedicated area within the Develop Expo (20 - 21 July) featuring some of the exciting and new indie projects currently under development.

Games:EDU is a one-day conference taking place on Wednesday 20 July alongside Develop, which brings together the UK's foremost educators from across all disciplines to connect directly with developers and games producers, to exchange ideas and perspectives.

About Tandem Events:

Tandem Events has over 20 years of experience in organising market-leading exhibitions, conferences and events across a number of industry sectors, including Develop and Evolve in Brighton, Evolve in London, Develop in Liverpool, Games:EDU, Games Marketing Forum and Games Grads.

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